Egg trouble

[mandk2309]

I have a chicken laying in weird patterns. Some days shells are super soft and break immediately, other days they are formed but not full hard shell consistency. Some days normal. I have asked on other forums with no help. She is on laying pellets and gets fresh fruits veggies and occasionally eggs, yogurt and oatmeal. I do mix their shells in with this. I put oyster shell out and they just looked at it. New birds were placed in the flock 3 weeks ago. They are younger than her and she is 2/3rd from the top of the pecking order. She is eating and drinking and acting fine. Thoughts? Picture is her egg the other day, tonight's egg was paper soft and laid while she was on the roost.

 

[Pork Pie]

I'd consider removing all additional foods but the layers feed and see if it helps. Additional foods / treats can interfere with calcium uptake.

This link is interesting -
http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/common-egg-quality-problems

 

[dunnmom]

How long has she been laying, and how long has the problem been going on?

 

[mandk2309]

My husband was out of town so she has only had pellets since Thursday 8/10. She is 16 months old. I was wondering if it was stress, but I don't know what to do to decrease it. We have 4 water stations and 3 food stations for 7 birds. 300sq ft run.

 

[LittleRedFace]

Maybe she needs to have some animal protein.

 

[coach723]

I'd consider removing all additional foods but the layers feed and see if it helps. Additional foods / treats can interfere with calcium uptake.

This link is interesting -
http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/common-egg-quality-problems

I agree with the above info. Lots of reasons that this can happen, the link given has lots of good info. Wanted to add that I would not mix the eggshells into other foods. Give the layer feed and provide oyster shell free choice in a separate feeder, all the time. They will take what they need. You can mix in your crushed egg shells with the oyster shell, I do about 50/50, which I have found they seem to like better than straight oyster shell. If it's a dietary thing then hopefully you will see improvement in shell quality in a few weeks, and too many treats can cause problems. Try to keep treats to less than 10% of food intake.
Could also be from stress as you've added new birds which upsets the pecking order.

 

[dunnmom]

I'm finding with my own hens and from advice I get from the forums, that it's not uncommon for hens to lay funky eggs when they're going through something. With my own hens it has usually come down to stress, coming into a molt, broodiness, or a dietary mismanagement thing (as stated above, too many treats). It's usually been a phase that passes.

Unless your hen has a defective shell gland, this probably won't be a permanent issue. The dietary stuff is the easiest place to start. Try tweaking that first, and give her about a week to see if it's helping.

The biggest danger that seems to be associated with soft-shelled eggs is an egg breaking inside the hen and causing an infection, but this seems to be a pretty rare occurrance. Look her over for mites, and check on her poops for signs of worms, or other poop inconsistencies.

 

[dunnmom]

Sorry to be long-winded. Lol! If she free ranges and she'd only had pellets since your hubby has been out of town, it's possible she's foraging more than usual out in the yard, since she hasn't been getting her usual treats. That could have an effect as well.